It has become common practice in the detergent industry to include in detergent compositions materials which are intended to control the amount of foam produced during a washing cycle in a washing machine.
Indeed, excessive sudsing has been found to interfere negatively with the action of the wash liquor upon the fabrics.
Silicone antifoam agents have been found to be particularly effective species, and efforts have been directed to increase the stability of such agents upon prolonged storage of the detergent compositions containing them.
In GB 1,492,339, it has been proposed to coat silicone antifoam agents with an organic material which is a water soluble or water dispersible, substantially non-surface active, detergent-impermeable material e.g. gelatin, agar or certain reaction products of tallow alcohol and ethylene oxide.
In EP-A-210 721, it has been proposed to coat silicone antifoam agents with water-insoluble fatty acid or fatty alcohols, and in EP-A-210 731 it has been disclosed to coat silicone antifoam agents with a monoester of glycerol and a fatty acid.
While such antifoam agents in granulate form appear to exhibit desirable stability upon storage, when incorporated in detergent compositions, it has been found that such antifoam granulates were not ideally suited for an easy incorporation into detergent compositions in powder form, such as dry-mixing.
It is thus the object of the present invention to provide storage-stable foam controlling agents, in the form of granulates which are free flowing and easily processable into a detergent composition.